The Culbertson Mansion
By Roberta Simpson Brown
Photos By Sharon Brown

One of the most widely recognized haunted sites in the Louisville area is the Culbertson Mansion, located at 914 E. Main Street just across the Ohio River in New Albany, Indiana. Since 1976, when the state of Indiana accepted the mansion from Historic New Albany to be maintained as a state historic site, staff members are only allowed to tell the ghost stories during October for Halloween events. From personal experiences and interviews with visitors and staff members, I am convinced that the hauntings occur all year long.

The general consensus is that the source of most of the paranormal activity is Cornelia, the second of William Culbertson’s three wives, for whom the $120,000 mansion was built in 1867 as a wedding gift. Cornelia died in her second-floor bedroom, but her ghost seems to be concerned with the renovation and upkeep of her 25-room home. Visitors and staff members, including Historic Interpreter/Curator Joellen Bye, have caught glimpses of her dressed in period attire on the second and third floors.

Bye says a parapsychologist associated with the University of Louisville visited the mansion in September 1985. He suggested that the house had a spirit of its own and might be causing the disturbances itself because it was unhappy with its condition. He also warned the staff about the strong negative energy his senses were picking up around the third-floor “punishment room,” a four-foot-square cubicle of latticework where the strict Culbertson's locked their children when they misbehaved.

The staff continues to be plagued by incidents they cannot explain. A heavy harp in the formal parlor keeps turning itself around. A large spinning wheel has been seen rotating on its own. Footsteps have been heard when nobody is there.

Some visitors have felt an invisible presence behind them, and some have been touched by unseen hands! I have personally heard thumps in empty rooms, witnessed furniture that has been overturned in locked rooms, and felt the energy of a presence I couldn’t see.

To tour the mansion is to experience the lavish Victorian lifestyle enjoyed by what was considered then to be Indiana’s wealthiest family. The inlaid woodwork, hand painted panels, and vast gold leaf ceilings are works of art.

As you view the grand parlors, dining room, bedrooms, kitchen, and laundry room, the realism of the period might cause you to expect some of the Culbertsons to join you on the tour. Listen to your senses and be on guard. Maybe one of them will! 

For directions and tour information, call 812-944-9600.